Documentation for Sessions

About

Sessions is a WordPress theme for DJs, Solo artists, Bands, Collectives, Club Owners, music producers, events producers and anyone in the music industry.

WordPress theme installation

The easiest way to install the theme, is by accessing your WordPress admin panel, then go to Appearance > Themes. Select the Install Themes tab and click the Upload link located just below the tab’s name. Click on Browse… and select the WordPress theme zip file you just downloaded. Then click the Install Now button, and after a few seconds, your new theme should be installed. Click activate and the theme is ready to use.

In order to install the theme manually, or in case you have trouble installing it through the admin panel, you have to unzip the WordPress theme’s zip file on your computer, and upload via FTP the resulting theme folder into your WordPress installation themes folder (wp-content/themes). Then, from the WordPress admin go to Appearance > Themes. The theme should be available in your themes list. Click activate.

After activation, you will be redirected to the CSSIgniter Settings panel (accessible from Appearance > CSSIgniter Settings) to start customizing your brand new theme.

WooCommerce

To enable eCommerce functionality for your website you need to install and activate the WooCommerce plugin by WooThemes. You can download the plugin free of charge from the WordPress Plugin Repository. For installation and usage instructions please refer to the plugin’s documentation.

Once you have installed and activated the WooCommerce plugin please install its pages by clicking on the button that WooCommerce provides on its banner. This will likely create a duplicate of some pages along with the pages installed by the sample content but its a needed step. You can delete the old pages that came with the sample content or use them instead by going to WooCommerce > Settings > Pages and assign them anew.

Also go to WooCommerce > Settings and in the Products tab set the image sizes that best fit your shop under the Product Image Sizes section, in case you need different values than the theme sets by default.

Image Sizes

The recommended image sizes for the Sessions theme are:

• Post Thumbnail: 750x500px
• Blog Thumbnail: 750x370px
• Small Thumbnail: 350x235px
• Fullwidth Blog Thumb: 945x380px
• Header Image: 1920x160px
• Slider: 945x550px
• Square Thumbnail: 750x750px
• Masonry Thumbnail: 750px width, not restricted in height.

Useful Plugins

These plugins provide functionality and features used directly (or not) by the Theme. So, it is recommended to install and activate them before importing your sample content.

• CSSIgniter Shortcodes you can use our custom made shortcode plugin to help you create a variety of layouts and elements on your site. Instructions can be found here.
• Socials Ignited use this plugin to create a widget that links to all your social profiles. You can also customize it with your icons and add new social networks, a guide can be found here.
• Contact Form 7 use this plugin to create a contact form, then copy the shortcode it gives you and paste it in an empty page.
• WP Instagram Widget: Use this plugin to help you display your Instagram feed in any of the theme’s sidebars.
• One Click Import : Use this plugin to help you import your content with just one click.

Importing Sample Content using One Click Import

To automate the process of importing and for a better experience we have natively included support for OneClick Import Plugin. Let install it fist:

From your WordPress dashboard

1. Visit ‘Plugins > Add New’,
2. Search for ‘One Click Demo Import’ and install the plugin,
3. Activate ‘One Click Demo Import’ from your Plugins page.

From WordPress.org

1. Download ‘One Click Demo Import’.
2. Upload the ‘one-click-demo-import’ directory to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory, using your favorite method (ftp, sftp, scp, etc…)
3. Activate ‘One Click Demo Import’ from your Plugins page.

Once the plugin is activated you will find the actual import page in: Appearance > Import Demo Data.

 Click on the Import demo data button and you are done!

This plugin requires PHP version of at least 5.3.x, but we recommend version 5.6.x or better yet 7.x. Please contact your hosting company and ask them to update the PHP version for your site.

Setting up your theme

1) Creating theme pages

1. Homepage: Create a page named Home  and apply to it the Homepage Template from the page attributes panel on the right. In the Frontpage Options panel that appears below the main text editor you can select a slider category to display, if you do not wish to show all slider items at once.
2. Discography listing: This page will list your discography items. Create a new page and apply the Discography Listing template to it. From the Discography Listing Options panel that appears below the main text editor, you can select the column number for the listing page, toggle the masonry and isotope effects and modify the number of items displayed on the page at once.
3. Artists listing: This page will list your artists. Create a new page and apply the Artists Listing template to it. From the Artists Listing Options panel that appears below the main text editor, you can select the column number for the listing page, toggle the masonry and isotope effects and modify the number of items displayed on the page at once.
4. Events listing: This page will list your events. Create a new page and apply the Events Listing or the Events Alt Listing template to it, depending on the layout you want, the first one provides a columned layout similar to the other listing pages and the alt provides a list layout for your events. From the Events Listing Options panel that appears below the main text editor, you can change the events’ sections titles, toggle the appearance of future or paste events, select the column number for the listing page, toggle the masonry and isotope effects and modify the number of items displayed on the page at once.
5. Gallery listing: In this page you will display your galleries. Create a new page and apply the Galleries Listing or Galleries Stapel template to it. From the Galleries Listing Options panel that appears below the main text editor when you select the Galleries Listing template, you can select the column number for the listing page, toggle the masonry and isotope effects and modify the number of items displayed on the page at once.
6. Videos listing: This page will list your videos. Create a new page and apply the Videos Listing template to it. From the Videos Listing Options panel that appears below the main text editor, you can select the column number for the listing page, toggle the masonry and isotope effects and modify the number of items displayed on the page at once.
7. Blog: This page will display your posts, apply the default template or the Blog – Fullwidth template to it, if you want your blog to be fullwidth.

(TIP, all page titles serve as examples, you can name your pages according to your needs.)

Once the pages are created, navigate to Settings > Reading and set the “Home” page to be your static frontpage and the “Blog” page as your posts page, as demonstrated in the image below.

Notice: if you have selected the Blog – Fullwidth template, do not set the blog page as your static posts page, leave that drop down empty.

2) Populating your blog

To add new posts to your blog, go to Posts > add new, title your post, enter the content in the editor, upload a featured image by clicking “Set featured image” on the Featured Image panel, add a category and/or tag to the post, if you so desire, from the respective panels and publish the post by clicking “Publish”.

3) Creating slider items

Go to Slideshow > Add New. Set the title. This is the text that will be displayed inside the slide. Set the featured image which will be cropped automatically to fit the slider. In the Slider Settings you can set the URL where users will visit if they click on this slider item, set a subtitle for your slide which will appear below the slider’s title and finally set a video URL if you want to display a video instead of the featured image. Slider behavior, like autoplay and slideshow speed can be configured under CSSIgniter Settings > Homepage Options.

The music player that appears at the bottom of the slider on the theme’s demo, can be configured under CSSIgniter Settings > Music Player Options.

4) Creating event items

Now you can start inserting your events from Events > New Event. Start by giving the event a title. We leave the main editor empty and we move a bit lower in the Event Settings section, here you can fill in the event’s info, details, status, location and sidebar placement. Each tab provides some information concerning its usage.
TIP: If you leave the coordinate boxes empty the map won’t appear in the single event view

5) Creating discography items

Go to Discography > Add new. Set the album title and upload the album’s cover in the featured image section. Now in the main editor you can write anything you want PLUS you can display the tracklisting of your album with the ability to let the users review your tracks! For this we are going to use our tracklisting system.

In the Discography Settings panel, you can fill in the album’s info, details, tracks and sidebar placement.

Tracklisting

Each discography item, can have multiple tracks assigned to it. Tracks can be registered through the Tracks section, within the Discography Settings section.

To add a new track, press the Add Track button. This will add a new empty line for you to fill. First, add a title and optionally a subtitle.

If the track can be purchased online, enter the URL inside the Buy URL field.

You can provide a preview (or even the full song) for your visitors to listen to, by entering the URL of the MP3 file inside the Play URL field. You can upload and/or select an already uploaded song through the WordPress Media Manager, by pressing the button located inside the field.

You may allow your users to download the track, by entering the song’s URL inside the Download URL field. Please note that for locally hosted MP3s, the theme tries to force the visitor’s browser to download the file. If the file is on another server, whether it will be downloaded or just opened, is a matter of configuration of the remote server and not the theme’s issue.

You can also add the lyrics for each track, in the big Song Lyrics field.

Tracks can be re-arranged by dragging and dropping them in the appropriate order. Track numbers are automatically updated to be in sequence.

In order to remove a track, press the Remove Me button next to the desired track. Please be careful, as there is no confirmation of removal. If you publish/save/update the post, the change is irreversible.

Displaying the track listing

Once you add your tracks you may display them by using the [tracklisting] shortcode in the discography item’s main text box. By default, it will display the tracks of the current discography item, so the simplest usage is this:

[tracklisting]

You may also display the track listing of any discography item, in any other post/page or widget (that supports shortcodes) by passing the ID or slug parameter of the discography to the shortcode. E.g.:

[tracklisting id=”25″]

or

[tracklisting slug=”the-division-bell”]

You can also selectively display tracks, by passing their track number (counting from 1), separated by a comma, like this:

[tracklisting tracks=”2,5,8″]
and can limit the total number of tracks displayed like this:

[tracklisting limit=”3″]

Of course, you can mix and match the parameters, so the following is totally valid:

[tracklisting slug=”the-division-bell” tracks=”2,5,8″ limit=”2″]

6) Adding video items

Go to Videos > Add New, give a title and a featured image to your video and move to the Video Settings panel. Here you can add a date, location and any other information you want for your video. In the Video URL box you will need to place your video’s URL, which is hosted on one of WordPress’s supported providers. You can also add any relevant information regarding your video and modify the placement of the single video item’s sidebar.

7) Adding gallery items

In order to create a new photo gallery go to Galleries > Add New, give a title and a featured image to your gallery and move to the Gallery Settings panel.

Here you can set the location for your gallery and click the Add Images button to upload your photos. Once done you can toggle the appearance of captions, select the number of columns you want for your gallery and whether you need a masonry effect.

8) Adding artist items

In order to insert a new artist just visit Artists > Add New. Add the artist’s name as a title, upload the featured image and fill in any information you want in the text editor, then move to the Artist Settings panel.

9) Creating your menu

Now that your content is in place, you will need a menu. Go to Appearance > Menus, check the pages you want on your menu and add them, give your menu a name and save it. Finally you will need to set your menu as “Main” menu, this can be done either by checking the “Main menu” box in “Menu Settings” just below your menu items in Menu Structure, or by going to the “Manage Locations” tab and selecting the menu you just created. The theme also features a Secondary Menu which you can create and assign in the same manner. The secondary menu will appear above the main menu and to the right.

(TIP, for more info on creating and managing menus, please read the WordPress Menu User Guide here)

10) Setting up your homepage

The homepage on Sessions consists of the homepage slider and the Front Page Widgets area. We saw earlier how we can create slider items. The widgetized area of the homepage can be accessed under Appearance > Widgets.

Duplicating the demo’s homepage

Default Homepage

The default homepage on the theme’s demo consists of three slider items, a CI Items widget displaying three events in three columns, a CI Items displaying two galleries in two columns, a CI Album Tracklisting displaying an album with its tracklisting and a CI Split Content displaying a page.

Home I

This homepage layout features one slider item displaying a video, a CI Latest Posts displaying three posts in three columns, a SoundCloud embed iframe in a text widget and a CI Split Content displaying a page.

Home II

This layout has three slider items, a CI Upcoming Events displaying 5 events in the alternative layout (list), a CI Items widget displaying three artists in three columns, a CI Items widget displaying three WooCommerce products in three columns and finally a CI Latest Posts displaying three posts in three columns.

Home III

Our third demo homepage comes with three slider items, a CI Upcoming Events displaying 5 events in the alternative layout (list), a CI Items widget displaying three artists in three columns, a CI Latest Posts displaying three posts in three columns, and finally a CI Items displaying two galleries in two columns.

11) Changing Footer text

The theme’s footer features an area for you to enter your copyright info, privacy policy etc. To change the text you need to go to CSSIgniter settings > Site options and use the appropriate box (5th box down).

12) Default header display

You can change the default background image displayed on the header by going to Appearance > CSSIgniter Settings > Appearance Options and upload your own.

13) Music Player Options

Here you can set up the theme’s music player. You can use either the tracklisting from an album, or a ShoutCast/IceCast stream which outputs mpeg audio. You can also select if you want the audio to auto-play when the page load, or not (default).

Now playing feature

You can enable fetching and displaying the title of the song currently playing. Please note that in order for this to work you need a ShoutCast server v2.0 or higher and your stream URL needs to be in the form of IP:port i.e. “http://192.102.192.1:8006/stream;”

14) Section & Button titles

Default titles for sections and buttons can be modified under Appearance > CSSIgniter Settings > Archive Options.

15) Custom Widgets

The theme features twelve custom widgets which are displayed below to help you display your content better.
All widgets can be accessed from Appearance > Widgets. Below each widget you will find a small description explaining their functionality.

The CSSIgniter settings panel

Last but not least, under Appearance > CSSIgniter settings, you can find our custom built settings panel. From here you can manipulate various aspects of your theme, including, but not limited to, changing your logo, setting a custom background, changing color scheme and applying custom styles via the custom CSS tab. All options feature a description so you instantly know their provided functionality.

How to use the page builder template

The theme comes bundled with a page builder template which allows you to use your favorite page builder plugin on it and create unique layouts very easily.

To use that template start by going to Pages > Add New. This will create a new page. Add a title to your page and select the Page builder template from the template drop down in the Page Attributes metabox.

That’s it. You can now start building your page using the page builder of your choice, once done publish it and check it out.

Next Steps

Still have questions or problems setting up your CSSIgniter Theme? We will be happy to help you out in our support forums